Sony Xperia Tablets: My Thoughts and Impressions

Sony has been through a lot of ups and downs especially on tablet market.

But the amazing thing about this company is, despite not having such a ground breaking sales number just like Apple iPads and Samsung’s tablets every quarter of the year, this Japanese manufacturer is still really consistent in delivering great quality tablets to the market – as shown on its Sony Xperia Tablet family.

And more impressively and should be appreciated from this company is - even with mediocre sales each quarter -, Sony doesn’t follow what its counterparts (such as: Samsung and LG) do to gain quick popularity, sales and market share around the tablet market, which is by blatantly copying the products of its top competitors (like Samsung copying Apple or LG copying Samsung).

But that’s not all. There are still many amazing things about this Japanese company.

And those can be seen on all Sony’s lineup of Xperia Tablets - Sony Xperia Tablet S, Sony Xperia Tablet P, Sony Xperia Tablet Z and the latest-gen Sony Xperia Tablet Z2 which just launched a couple of months ago.

Anyway, on this website, i’ve already reviewed the gaming performance on all of these 4 Sony’s tablets.

So that’s why today, i want to wrap them up into one solid quick summary review, which is the continuation from other quick summary reviews of other tablet brands that i’ve been showing you guys in the past couple of days.

First of all, let me begin with the first-gen Sony Xperia Tablet S, a 9.4-inch Android tablet powered by Tegra 3 processor, then followed by the smaller Sony Xperia Tablet P, continued with Sony Xperia Tablet Z and of course, last but not least, the much improved and successor of Sony Xperia Tablet Z – the Sony Xperia Tablet Z2.

Sony Xperia Tablet S

As a tablet released in late 2012, Sony Xperia Tablet S is actually not too shabby at all, especially in terms of spec sheet.

First of all, this tablet is powered by a quad-core Tegra 3 processor with the clock speed of 1.3GHz per core, coupled with 1GB of RAM and 12-core GeForce ULP GPU, which will be more than capable to handle any basic to even heavy graphics-related tasks that are thrown on this device.

And all of these games will surely run smoothly even in full highest graphics.

Meanwhile, on the screen sector, Sony interestingly decides to use a different screen size than many of its rivals – a 9.4-inch display sporting the resolution of 1280x800 pixels or translated into 720p resolution.

This is a great decision by Sony because the Tegra 3 processor inside this device – despite being able to handle even 1080p display – will perform much faster and smoother if it’s only tasked with 720p resolution.

And by using this processor and 720p display, the battery life of this tablet – which has a huge 6000mAh capacity – could last much longer even in heavy use.

The other awesome things to be liked from this tablet is its 8MP rear-facing camera that’s of course able to deliver some decent quality shots, plus 1MP camera on the front that’s also capable to do 720p video recording.

Not to mention, thanks to its IPX-4 certification, Sony Xperia Tablet S is a splash proof tablet – although it’s not water resistant device.

This is actually similar with Motorola Moto E smartphone that has splash proof certification but it’s not water resistant.

Sony Tablet P

Besides Sony Xperia Tablet S – which is the companion or tablet model of Sony Xperia S smartphone -, this company also released another Android device called Sony Tablet P.

However, unlike other regular Android tablets out there on the market, this Sony Tablet P is using dual screens that are flippable.

This device actually kind of reminds me with Nintendo DS – which also has dual flippable touch screens where the top screen is used as the main screen, while the bottom touch screen is utilized as the on-screen virtual keyboard, keypad or gamepad controller.

One thing to notice from this Sony Tablet P is actually its gorgeous looking design and premium material.

However, in real world implementation, this dual-screen design apparently is not executed perfectly by Sony on this Sony Tablet P.

So in the middle of both screens, there are some huge bezels between top screen and bottom screen.

And this really ruins the experience of using this tablet entirely, especially when users use it to browse the web or reading contents like books or magazines, where the middle dark bezels between both screens don’t do anything besides showing dark areas between each screen.

This is probably the reason why Sony decided to stop the production of this device from long time ago.

On the display, Sony Tablet P features 5.5-inch dual flippable screens sporting the resolution of 1024x480 pixels, with the pixel density of -206 ppi.

This may not be the highest resolution screen on the market in 2012.

However, the dual-screen design of this tablet is actually pretty interesting and in fact, cannot be found on any other Android devices until today.

Anyway, as far as the performance goes, this Sony Tablet P is probably not as fast and powerful as its sibling Sony Xperia Tablet S, especially in gaming performance.

And that’s not so surprising given that this device is powered by a dual-core Tegra 2 processor, as opposed to the Tegra 3 on Sony Xperia Tablet S.

But even so, with this type of processor, there are still many games that will run perfectly and smoothly, plus in full graphics on this handheld device – from Modern Combat 2, Samurai Showdown, ShadowGun, Need for Speed Undercover and SHIFT, NOVA 1, GTA III, PES 2012, Real Football 2012 and many other games released in 2012 or before that year.

Of course, the latest games in 2013 can also be played on this device, but most of them will not run smoothly in full highest graphics.

There are also many other goodies that can be enjoyed by users on this tablet – from 5MP rear-facing camera that’s able to take 720p videos, as well as VGA camera on the front.

Meanwhile, on the energy department, there is a 3080mAh power battery found inside this tablet, ensuring an all-day-long battery life to users.

And the fact that Tegra 2 processor is not that power hungry (as seen on other Tegra 2 tablets like Acer Iconia Tab A500), i believe its all-day-long battery life is easily achievable on this tablet.

Sony Xperia Tablet Z

Last year, Sony continued its journey on tablet market by introducing the world’s first water resistant tablet called Sony Xperia Tablet Z.

Similar just like the predecessor, this tablet is also the companion - or the tablet model, if you would – of the Sony Xperia Z smartphone, which also is a water resistant device

Through this tablet, it’s really obvious that Sony has high hopes that this flagship tablet will have an amazing success just like iPad on tablet market.

So that’s why Sony equips this device with some of the best high-grade specs on the market that time – from:

a full HD 1080p (1200x1920 pixels) display,

a quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor,

2GB of RAM,

Adreno 330 GPU,

8.1MP rear-facing camera as well as the 2.2MP camera on the front (which both are able to do 1080p video recording and HDR mode),

a huge 6000mAh battery inside (providing 110 hours of music play, according to GSMarena)

and Android Jelly Bean out of the box, which can be upgraded to KitKat.

Interestingly, unlike many other tablets on the market, this Sony Xperia Tablet Z comes with a complete set of standard features – from Bluetooth, Infrared, FM radio, WiFi, GPS, Java and Micro-SIM cellular connectivity, making it an all-around media-consumption tablet.

Not to mention, Sony also uses its Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 on the screen of Sony Xperia Tablet Z, which is an upgrade from the Sony Bravia Engine on the predecessor.

However, according to many reviews on YouTube, many tech reviewers and users reported that the display quality of this Sony Xperia Tablet Z is not really good, as marketed by Sony.

It has a bad viewing angel and the colors look really washed out.

These are actually the same exact issues plagued on the Sony Xperia Z smartphone.

Many believe this was probably due to the IP57 certification on this tablet, which is dust proof and water resistant certification.

However, that turned out to be wrong because on the successor of this tablet – which is the one i’m about to show in a minute -, the IP57 certification of this tablet doesn’t have anything to do with the quality of its screen.

Sony Xperia Tablet Z2

It’s really obvious that through this sequel Sony Xperia Tablet Z2, Sony wants to address some of the issues – especially on the screen – that plague the predecessor - Sony Xperia Tablet Z.

And that’s shown by how the screen of this Sony Xperia Tablet Z2 looks really gorgeous and it has a far better viewing angel than predecessor, not to mention, the colors now also look more vibrant and realistic – as opposed to the screen of the previous-gen model that looks really washed out.

Besides on the screen department, Sony Xperia Tablet Z2 also brings many bumped up sectors here and there on the hardware – from a newer Snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB of RAM and a much improved IP58 certification, which upgrades the water resistant ability of this device (IP5”8” compared to IP5”7” on the predecessor).

There are also some other new goodies that can be enjoyed on this tablet – like its 4G LTE cellular connectivity, 8.1MP rear-facing camera, 2.2MP front-facing camera and the same 6000mAh power battery, ensuring 188 hours of music play, 13 hours of talk time (multimedia) and 1200 hours for standy mode.

The rest of other things on this tablet is pretty much the same, it still has Bluetooth, Infrared, GPS, Java, FM radio and many more.

As a gaming tablet, then it’s really obvious that this Sony Xperia Tablet Z2 will more than greater for that matter.

And that’s because Snapdragon 801 processor, Adreno 330 GPU and 3GB of RAM are "designed" to handle any games that you see today on the market – even the latest and most graphically demanding ones like Modern Combat 5, GTA San Andreas, NOVA 3, Dead Trigger 2 or Need for Speed Most Wanted – all in buttery smooth performance and of course, in full highest graphics.

Okay then, that’s it for now about Sony Xperia Tablets.

But don’t worry, this is not the end of this blog post because i’ll definitely be updating this article with more tablets in the near future especially when Sony finally releases the next-gen of its tablet series.

So you should stick around to this page if you’re interested to find out more about other Sony’s tablets.

Disclaimer: Hi guys, bear in mind that this is not some in-depth review. This is Read more...